Thank you to the Communities, not just the communities

Over the years decades (what a thought), I have always tried to express my appreciation for the support of the Community in my State of the Game/Mea Culpa messages. While some have thought of it as disingenuous, anyone who worked closely with me at Mythic or back in my AUSI days knows just how much I care about the players who play in and pay for the games I have had a hand in creating. Publicly I have always talked about the difference between Community and community and even when some communities were mad at me/Mythic, I was always grateful for their support. While at times I could get frustrated with members of a community when things got especially personal and nasty (being human and all that), I always remembered that it was the players who make up the Community who were paying to play our games. Back when I was designing and coding my own games (Galaxy and Aradath) I pioneered the twin concepts of “Suggest and Win” and “Bug Hunt and Win” to reward the community for helping to improve my games. I knew the importance of doing such things then as I still do to this day. That being said, it’s a really good time to once again thank you all, especially now when I don’t have a paying/playing Community anymore.

My thanks go out to all the players who have come through the doors of the games I have been privileged to help create over the years. The run that started with Galaxy and Aradath/Dragon’s Gate, passed through Aliens Online, Silent Death, Godzilla Online and grew to Dark Age of Camelot and ended with WAR was made possible with your support and I’ve never forgotten that and I never will. I have always been and will always be a believer of not treating the players as nothing more than walking and talking wallets and I have and will always maintain that belief even if/when it comes at a personal cost.

So, a special shout-out to all the communities, fan sites and forums out there whether or not I’ve been roasted, toasted and posted there, you may never know just how important you really were to me and to my games but maybe one day you will.

Mark

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I wasn’t into blogging back in the days of DAOC (I don’t even think blogging had been invented yet! :P) but I picked up the torch with WAR and was always thankful for the various ways Mythic treated the blogging community.

I don’t think I’ve seen an MMO studio with as much outreach, interaction, and gifts of exclusive newsy goodies as Mythic.

My WAR blog is no longer active these days, but it was a great 1.5 year run!

DAoC was the first MMO I played, and in many ways it is still the gold standard that I compare all of the (many, many) MMOs I’ve tried since then. It had the best community I’ve seen in a game – almost everyone I encountered was kind and helpful, and I loved being a part of it. I am -still- waiting for something else to do 3-sided PvP, because I think that was a brilliant idea. I picked up WAR CE, sight-unseen simply because I knew Mythic was involved. The game had some flaws, but for the year or so I played (before school started eating up -all- my time), I had a lot of fun.

I’m glad you’re blogging again, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

I started playing war a couple of days after it’s released. It was the podcasts done by paul and jeff and josh that got me interested. I’ve never even thought about unsubbing, i love your game that much – even with its ups and downs. The reality is, there’s nothing better out there, and until there is, I guess I’m stuck playing Warhammer for another year or so 🙂

One thing that sucks about the new management is they don’t seem to be as down with the players as you guys were. You never see them doing podcasts or anything like that. It was your enthusiasm that really made me want to play Warhammer, because of the effort you put into it, and the way you responded to player feedback, I felt you deserved my subscription.

I still do – it’s just a shame that you’re no longer a part of that, when i feel you deserve it more than a lot of others

Thanks for the kind words and the continued support of WAR. Even though I’m no longer part of EA/Mythic, I’m glad to hear that people such as yourself are still playing the game and enjoying it. A lot of people poured their hearts and souls into the game and I’m sure that they would also be gratified to hear that you and others, still enjoy their creation. Enjoy!